New EU project AutHUMate kicks off to help drivers and assisted driving systems understand each other
A new Horizon Europe project, AutHUMate, held its kickoff meeting earlier this year at the Institute for Automotive Engineering (ika) at RWTH Aachen University, bringing together 12 partners from across Europe, including UITP, to tackle one of the persistent barriers to safer assisted driving: the gap between what a system actually does and what its driver believes it does.
Assisted driving systems at SAE Level 2 to 3 are already commercially available and marketed as a way to reduce accidents caused by human error. Yet research gathered by the consortium points to a recurring problem.
Drivers often have an inaccurate mental model of their system, which leads either to misuse, such as a delayed response when asked to take back control, or to the driver avoiding the system altogether. Trust and acceptance also vary widely with age, driving experience and other variables.
AutHUMate, which stands for Adaptive User Training & Human-Technology Interaction Strategy for Enhanced Traffic Safety, sets out to close that gap. Over three years, running until March 2029, the project will design a self learning human technology interaction strategy that combines driver state and environmental context to support safe handovers and calibrated trust between driver and vehicle.
It will extend driver monitoring to pick up on cognitive load, stress, fatigue and impairment, and pair this with a multimodal interface using visual, auditory and haptic signals to keep drivers aware of what their system is doing and why.
Training is a central pillar of the project. AutHUMate will furthermore build a two stage programme combining offline preparation with adaptive, real time support delivered during driving, drawing on VR and AR technology and gamified learning to build accurate mental models and train safer driving behaviour from the get-go.
Solutions will be tested in highly accurate driving simulators and validated through field operational tests, with the aim of reaching technology readiness levels 6 to 7 and aligning outcomes with European standards.
A distinguishing feature of AutHUMate is that societal readiness is built in from the beginning rather than considered only once the technology is finished. Guided by Responsible Research and Innovation principles, the project will run a dedicated work package to assess how different social groups, including elderly, novice, professional and impaired drivers, view these systems, and to feed that understanding directly into the technical design.
AutHUMate is funded under the Horizon Europe programme (HORIZON-CL5-2025-04) with a total budget of €4,021,216.79. UITP will contribute to the project’s societal readiness by ensuring the interaction with relevant public transport stakeholders, and will elaborate on the Stakeholder and user needs analysis from the public transport perspective.
Additionally, UITP will feed in the Evaluation of training effectiveness and will contribute to the consortium’s communication, dissemination and stakeholder engagement activities, working to connect the project’s findings with the wider public transport and mobility community.
UITP is moreover proud to take part in such an innovative project, and we look forward to realising the project goals and projected outcomes.